IMPECCABLE style meets intriguing olfactory concoctions and mood-enhancing fragrances for these recent launches.
Penhaligons – Fortuitous Finley
£245 for 75ml – Buy here
The latest in the brand’s Portraits series of notable fragrances, Finley is the dashing and daring groundskeeper in this fragrant universe. A fresh leather – not a worn-in saddle-sort – Fortuitous Finley is composed by up-and-coming perfumer Caroline Dumur, the nose behind scents for Comme des Garcons, Lacoste, Masque Milano, Rabanne among others.
This very addictive “labyrinth of leather and spice”, Fortuitous Finley infuses spicy cardamom, star anise and black pepper; a heart of pistachio, matcha tea and salt; which is layered over lingering patchouli, violet leaf and leather.
Maya Njie – Voyeur Verde
£90 for 50ml – Buy here
From the Shoreditch-based, Swedish-Gambian perfumer-maker and artist Maya Njie, who creates highly regarded complex creations – each inspired by an image from her family album – with a very considered aesthetic.
Voyeur Verde is inspired by a photo of a beaten-up, abandoned Mercedes in a wooded area in rural Spain in her family’s collection. The car has been taken back by nature and is covered in greenery and branches. And so, Voyeur Verde is beautiful, breezy and a redolent blend of leather, wood and green tones. With cypress, bergamot and mandarin orange; middle notes are Brazilian rosewood, iris, fennel and ylang-ylang; in the base are leather, cedar, olibanum and patchouli.
Dior – La Collection Privée Travel Spray Set
La Collection Privée Christian Dior Travel Spray holder for £178 and Travel Refill 2 x 12ml for £80 – Buy here
When you travel, you don’t want to take full-size bottles of your favourite scent – at least I don’t. I always decant mine or take a small decant with me. However, Christian Dior has a much more elegant solution to this. Celebrating its equal passions for travel, fashion and perfume, the House has launched the La Collection Privée Christian Dior Travel Spray Set.
Available in black or silver polished metal finishes, the travel sprays feature a CD-engraved lid. They can be customised with canvas or leather couture covers featuring House patterns, including Dior Oblique, Toile de Jouy and Houndstooth. Eleven Dior fragrances from La Collection Privée Christian Dior are available for the sprays – Gris Dior, Ambre Nuit, Oud Ispahan, Bois d’Argent, Dioriviera, Lucky, Jasmin des Anges, Sakura, Rouge Trafalgar, New Look and Bois Talisman.
Givenchy – Gentleman Society Ambrée
£110 for 100ml – Buy here
Givenchy Gentleman was debuted in 1975 and celebrated the House’s impeccably elegant founder, Hubert de Givenchy. Fifty years on, and some other olfactory incarnations later, the brand releases Gentleman Society Ambrée. Exploring a more decadent aspect of the original, the bold, woody and redolent perfume exudes warmth and richness.
This classy woody, floral and amber composition opens with nutmeg, clary sage and juniper berries; floating on top are narcissus, Madagascar vetiver, Haitian vetiver, orris and sandalwood; tobacco, Madagascar vanilla and Peru balsam form the rich base.
L’Objet – Blindfold
£200 for 100ml – Buy here
Sensual warm and intimate, Blindfold is the new launch from brilliant interior design and fragrance house L’Objet. Created by brand founder and creative director Elad Yifrach in close collaboration with master perfumer Yann Vasnier, they describe Blindfold as “wrapped in the memory of crisp sheets the morning after”. This is a very seductive skin scent, with fine linen-like layering of saffron and suede on top of soft musk.
DS&Durga – Brown Flowers
£150 for 50ml – Buy here
New from oh-so self-knowingly cool Brooklyn fragrance brand DS&Durga, Brown Flowers harks back to the drab 1970s and is inspired by architecture – a friend’s modernist glass house and its imagined owner who has plants and vases of brown flowers strewn all over.
Warm, nostalgic, earthy as well as floral, this has an intriguing scent profile – opening with acacia, dried cedrat and Queen Anne’s lace, which reveal brown orchid, coffee flower and sambac jasmine; grounded by aged musk, roots and coffee
Gritti Ivy Collection – Mango Aoud
£290 for 100ml – Buy here
Family-owned Venetian perfume brand Gritti is fronted by the charismatic Luca Gritti. A descendent of a renowned 16th-century dynasty of “spice merchants and diplomats” from Venice, Luca combines his family’s rich heritage with a modern audacious approach to perfumery.
Designed as “niche fragrances for modern rebels and hedonists”, Luca is also the nose for the brand and the delectable Mango Aoud, part of the Ivy Collection, is inspired by the Gritti family’s lush garden and grounds.
Luxurious, multifaceted and intriguing, green mango accents are blended with guava, neroli osmanthus, ylang ylang, vanilla, amber and coconut milk, which are submerged with wood and resin notes of oud. Its tropical sweetness is cleverly offset by smoke-filled oud in an unusual combination that works brilliantly.
Initio – Power Self
£275 for 100ml – Buy here
Embracing the recent trend for scientifically proven mood-boosting scents, Initio Parfums Privés launches Power Self into its genderless Hedonist Collection range of “functional scents”.
Power Self is designed to enhance the wearer’s confidence, which it does by “harnessing the direct connection between fragrance and the brain’s sensory receptors – this creation goes beyond mere olfactory pleasure”. When I inhale its soft floral underscored by playful spice fumes, I do feel instantly calmer.
Power Self is infused with pink pepper top notes; middle notes are white flowers, white rose, osmanthus and magnolia are at its heart, which settles on a musk, ambrox super and cedarwood base.
Voyages by Nest – Cerulean Coast
£200 for 100ml – Buy here
Voyages by Nest is a new level of luxury perfumes from the beloved New York brand Nest. Inspired by founder Laura Slatkin’s extensive travels, they take in charming gardens, spice markets as well as esoteric apothecaries.
Made with leading Givaudan perfumers, the debut Voyages collection of six sophisticated scents open up a rich empire of the senses. This summer, I will be wearing the shimmering Cerulean Coast, which has breezy hints of sea flora, bitter orange, amber and salted driftwood.
Marc-Antoine Barrois – Aldebaran
£190 for 100ml – Buy here
Continuing his exploration of deep space, Marc-Antoine Barrois new perfume Aldebaran is named after the brightest star in the universe, which was discovered by an 18th-century Arab astronomer. Aldebaran is one of the most anticipated launches this year.
A soliflore (a solo note fragrance) and embodying “hope and optimism”, Aldebaran is a riff on tuberose. The milky, vanilla-y ness of tuberose is balanced with layers of earthy and nutty tones of paprika, maté and tonka bean.
Shining like a luminous night star, the very compelling Aldebaran is abstract yet beautiful, cool and slightly alien.
by Caroline Simpson